Pharmacy Daily | The top Australian killers

HEART disease is still the number one killer of Australian men and women, according to new figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The report, Causes of Death in Australia, found that despite being the number one killer, deaths from heart disease have fallen steadily since 2002. According to the numbers there were 21,513 deaths from heart disease in 2011, with heart disease accounting for 15% of all deaths in 2011 compared to 19% of all deaths in 2002. “Heart disease has remained the leading cause of death in Australia over the last ten years and continued to be the leading cause in 2011,” said James Eynstone- Hinkins, Director of the Health and Vitals Statistics Unit. Meanwhile, there were 9,864 deaths caused by dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in 2011, comprising 7% of all deaths, the majority of which occurred in people aged 75 or over. Another big killer was lung cancer, which was found to have made up 6% of all deaths and 19% of all deaths from cancer - making it the fourth leading cause of death for Australians in 2011, whilst prostate cancer was the fifth most common cause of death for men. Among women, breast cancer was found to be the sixth most common cause of death. There were also 1,530 deaths from falls among people aged over 75 last year (with women accounting for 57% of these deaths).

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